1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flexible circuit film and a display panel assembly having the flexible circuit film. More particularly, the present invention relates to a flexible circuit film with reduced crack formation in a signal transmission line and a display panel assembly having the flexible circuit film.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a liquid crystal display (LCD) device corresponding to a flat panel display device displays an image using electrical and optical characteristics of liquid crystals. The LCD device has advantageous characteristics such as thinness, light weight, low driving voltage, low power consumption, etc. For these advantages, LCD devices are widely used as the display panel in various applications.
The LCD device includes a display panel assembly and a backlight assembly that provides light to the display panel assembly. The display panel assembly displays an image by using the optical transmissivity of liquid crystals.
The display panel assembly includes an array substrate having a thin film transistor, a color filter substrate having a color filter, a liquid crystal layer disposed between the array substrate and the color filter substrate, a printed circuit board (PCB) generating a control signal for driving the thin film transistor, and a flexible circuit film electrically connecting the array substrate to the PCB so as to transmit the control signal to the array substrate. The flexible circuit film includes a signal transmission line transmitting the control signal from the PCB to the array substrate.
During assembly, the flexible circuit film is wrapped around the edge of a substrate such that the PCB that is attached to the flexible circuit film is disposed under the display panel assembly. When the flexible circuit film is bent this way, a crack sometimes forms in the signal transmission line. Since the signal transmission line of the flexible circuit film is bent most extremely near the end portion of the array substrate or at the end portion of the PCB, a crack is most likely to form near the end portion of the array substrate or at the end portion of the PCB.
A cracked signal transmission line does not transmit the control signal well. Thus, crack formation in the signal transmission line of the flexible circuit film deteriorates the display quality of the LCD device.